Where’s “The Donald” in Two Years?

This week’s LA Progressive survey asked what America’s political landscape will look like in two years after Hillary Clinton stumbles across the finish line first in next week’s presidential election.

What will Donald Trump be doing, we asked? Where will the Clinton-Kaine administration be heading? Barack and Michelle? The mainstream media? The two main political parties? You and me?

Hillary seemed to be cruising to victory when we launched the survey, in some surveys 10 points ahead of Trump, whose pussy-grabbing ways and bully-boy tactics finally seemed to be costing him support.

But then, as if this election isn’t crazy enough, FBI Director James Comey announced that his G-men are going to once again begin poring through Clinton’s emails found on a computer shared by advisor-in-chief Huma Abadein and her erstwhile husband, Anthony “Small Bulge” Weiner.

Still, for argument’s sake at least, let’s assume that Hillary does manage to appear at enough rallies with Barack and Michelle and Joe and Bernie and any other actually popular Democrat to stagger to victory.

Today, let’s look at directions Donald Trump and his family might find themselves in two years. In coming days we’ll look at the other questions.

Donald Trump Media Network

Most survey respondents thought Trump would have leveraged his 24/7 notoriety into a right-wing media empire to rival Fox Noise (64%) or would be riding a growing wave of populist, white supremacists rage, serving as its spokesman (58%).

These aren’t mutually exclusive possibilities, of course. On the media empire, he’s a 70-year-old man who doesn’t seem so good at actually running businesses as much as running them into the ground. He has surrounded himself with advisors who might well want to challenge Fox News, and his two sons might have ambitions in that direction. Perhaps Trump will serve as figurehead for such an enterprise, though he won’t roll up his sleeves to actually do the work.

But what gets Trump up in the middle of the night these days is his overwhelming compulsion to be the center of attention, topic number one for the talking head crowd with his mug splashed across tabloid front pages. And, starting with his whole born-in-Kenya attacks on President Obama and continuing through his bizarre parody of a presidential campaign, that’s what he has perfected.

As wacho as it may seem, this New York real estate mogul has become the darling of small town and rural whites who are glad that Trump has given them permission to blame “The Blacks,” Mexicans, Muslims, and uppity women for their woes. While this group has always been with us, changes in social norms had put a muzzle on their overt racial and ethnic animus. Now, the Donald’s permission has renewed this group’s determination to “take their country back”. So they aren’t going away. They’ll continue to lap up his racist, sexist bilge for years to come, giving him the audience he craves while unleashing and emboldening the worst America has to offer.

Ignore Him, He’ll Go Away

Another segment of survey respondents thought that the Republican Party will ostracize Trump after his crushing defeat (51%) and the mainstream media will figure out how to ignore him (43%).

For the past nearly eight years, the Republicans have pretty effectively put former president George W. Bush on the shelf, after his disastrous presidency had him slinking back to Houston as the least popular president in memory.

But Donald won’t slink. He’s already blaming Republican leaders for failing to support him, blaming the media for favoring Clinton, blaming the campaign managers he’s fired, blaming… And he’s not going anywhere. He’ll be all over the media, giving interviews, traveling the country, not because he has anything important to say, but because he wants to be seen saying something — anything.

Whether Trump loses in a landslide or by a nose, the Republican Party will need to divorce itself from their presidential candidate while still keeping hold of the largely white voting segment he represents—but also while not branding itself as a whites-only party in an increasingly minority-majority world. That’s an impossible task and they’ll keep their party going only because they’ve gerrymandered their way to control so many state houses and Congressional districts.

Then there’s the media. As one respondent said:

“In a just world he’d go on trial for his frauds, assaults, and a super long list of other transgressions. In a truly just world, he’d just wander around his Trump Tower suite muttering “Rosebud” or something similar.”

But “The Donald” won’t go on trial for anything and the media isn’t going to ignore him. Sure, there will be a certain amount of public navel gazing about the media’s role in foisting such an utterly unqualified candidate on the American voting public. But this is the media that considers Kim Kardashian’s sex life a news story—year after year for years. C’mon, debating Donald’s latest tweet is money in the bank for media outlets, which trumps any pretense to being the inheritors of Edward R. Murrow’s legacy.

Melania, Ivanka, and the Brothers

Smaller portions of our readers thought Melania would head for greener pastures with a truckload of Donald’s cash (27%) or that Ivanka would be running for Congress (10%).

You’re right, there’s probably not much chance of either happening within two years, but the Trump kids have gotten a taste of politics, they’ve seen how their father managed to run a competitive campaign without party support or any in-depth knowledge of the issues but with a ton of his own money and a knack for diddling the media. One of them—maybe Ivanka, maybe not—will take those lessons to run for something down the road.

Then, there is always the possibility that one reader put forth: “He, like Rumplestiltskin, throws a tantrum and rips himself apart!” That’s got my vote.

DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed here are those of the individual contributor(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the LA Progressive, its publisher, editor or any of its other contributors.

About Dick Price

Dick Price is Editor of the LA Progressive. With his wife Sharon, he publishes several other print and online newsletters on political and social justice issues. He has worked in publishing as a writer, editor, and publisher for a quarter century. In earlier releases, he was a cab driver, bartender, construction worker, soldier, and farmhand, and for many years helped operate a nonprofit halfway house for homeless alcoholics and addicts. To contact him, please use the form on the Contact Us page.

Comments

You seem to be missing the big set of possibilities facing Trump: disgrace, more bankruptcies, and conceivably jail.

He’s going to be spending the rest of 2016 in court over the Trump “University” cases, both the fraud charges by New York and perhaps other States, and then in all likelihood a blizzard of private suits.

The sex charges around underaged girls provided by a convicted sex-criminal may or may not go away.

As evidence drips out, it looks as though he may be up on serious tax violation charge. in particular, his claimed deduction for losing other people’s money with his gambling casinos has not yet been ruled on or litigated. All this stuff is still “secret,” but the outlines are known: he lost a lot of money, a little of it perhaps his own. People who lose money are entitled to a tax deduction for it. Trump claimed a deduction for losing money that didn’t belong to him, was warned by his advisers that the legality of this trick was very dubious, and went ahead anyway.

Today his trick is very clearly illegal. At the time, it was weasely, and its legality unknown. Stay tuned.

“His” Toronto Trump Hotel and Tower has been deadbeat for a year, in receivership for some time, and order for sale since last week (first week fo November 2016). The mosquito cloud of litigation around it will no doubt continue.

My own guess is that this Toronto failure, and the parallel failure of the Vancouver Trump Hotel to open, may just be that cloud on the horizon, storm to follow. None of his properties seems to be making the money he claims. His rental of his name was very profitable in the past. That seems to be emphatically past, unless he manages to win election. Even if he is elected, that income stream is no longer there.

The Washington hotel at the old post office? If he becomes President, it may have a chance. If he doesn’t, it might be in liquidation by the end of the year.

The golf courses? Many of them losing money, and only even faintly viable on the hope of long-term conversion to real-estate development. This means he is dependent upon the high opinion of others, bankers, lenders, zoning officials, and so on. I suspect that high opinion of Donald Trump is a rare commodity evaporating before our eyes.

Furthermore, one isn’t supposed to reveal confidential information (I didn’t say FACTS because that has not been determined) as a matter of policy and in this case, the federal Hatch Act. Might there be an investigation of congressional reps, staff or wheover else for revealing this confidential information within the 60 days of an election?

I’m thinking that the odds are pretty good that in two years President Trump will be on the phone in the Oval Office offering some judge a Supreme Court nomination for the second time in his first term.

And the Democrats still won’t have an answer for “How the hell did we nominate someone that could be beaten by Donald Trump?!”

If this is what you think sir you need to come out in the light, be apart of the real world and truly meet the women, men and demographics who are Trump supporters. We are out in force saving OUR country from the ilk in both parties whom only care about themselves, not the AMERICAN PEOPLE! Educate yourself by reading Micheal Savages STOP THE COMING CIVIL WAR. That’s where this country has gone under the corrupt leadership of Hillary and Obama. This is and has been the most destructive administration in U.S. history! I’m just sorry you’re so blinded by ignorance (libral democratic party) to see the pain and disparaging in our big cities to rural America. You call out Trump on a false narrative, but do not breathe 1 breathe of Hillary and Bills destructive in richest of themselves at our (AMERICAN PEOPLES) EXPENSE!

The Middle East

Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers: If more people in the US become aware of the truth about Israel’s genocidal policies, the economic lifeline and political protection of the United States will disappear.